Searching for the Missing Identity

Iliana 2022-03-21 09:02:18

At the beginning Cahit is not sensitive to his Turkish identity at all. Quite the opposite, he almost forgets this part of his life. Growing up in Germany, speaking broken Turkish as a foreign language, marring a German wife, and indulging in hard rock music, all these components indicate his Turkish identity “not as a problem of non-belonging but rather as an opportunity to construct multiple belongings.” Head-On gives more attention to the enabling side of living through different cultures, instead of being exiled or homeless experience.

Incidentally, it is Sibel who ignites Cahit's Turkish identity. Though Sibel is not a traditional girl, always trying to rebel, she makes Cahit meet her conservative Turkish family who remains strict about rules for marriage, and demand that he goes through traditional wedding routines. But on the positive side, he improves his Turkish, which should be his native language, and gradually falls in love with this German-Turkish girl. After being freed from prison, he follows Sibel to Istanbul. The transition for Cahit happens unintentionally.

However, Cahit chooses to go back not only because of love, but to find himself. He may not have any idea of ​​what it would be like and what will go on when he really goes back, but as part of his potential identity, he just feels curious to know more about it. The final scenario when Cahit takes the bus alone to go back to the town where he was born seems like a sad ending for the love story, while it is in coherent with the main topic: quest to find themselves. The film suggests that the quest as well as the passion for life is still on going. Throughout the time, both Sibel and Cahit “seek to invent a new life, a new morality, and they pay a price for trying to do so.”

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Extended Reading

Head-On quotes

  • Sibel: Cahit! I'm getting laid!

    Cahit: [looking at Sibel and then the guy]

    Sibel: Did you see the guy?

  • Cahit: I'm sorry I ran off before.

    Sibel: That's OK.

    Cahit: I'm a mental case, you know?

    Sibel: [Kisses Cahit]